Hans Asperger

[Canopus]

Today I received some information from the patriotic community that Hans Asperger was a Nazi medical researcher, and his work was suppressed for decades due to him being a Nazi.

 

Is this really true?

[Mumble]

Not as far as I'm aware. He was a member of some youth movements in the 1920s (which was of course before WW2 but may be where some people are making the connections - just a guess?)

 

There isn't a lot about what he did during the war years however, which is perhaps strange. But, he did open his first school for children with Autistic Psychopathy towards the end of the war, which I doubt he would have been doing if such suppression had occurred.

 

Also his seminal paper in which Asperger Syndrome was first discussed was published in 1944 which again probably wouldn't have happened were this true although here it is again interesting that this paper wasn't translated into English and made available to a wider audience until Uta Frith did so in 1991 - well worth getting hold of her book (Autism and Asperger Syndrome) - it's a 'heavy' read in places but fascinating if you have the time to read it.

Edited March 2, 2007 by Mumble

[Bullet]

To be honest it's going to be nigh on impossible to tell unless one of his relatives can give more details on his personal leanings. At the time of his studies every German other than those shipped off to the camps were ordered to join the Nazi Party. Not having the Mein Kampf book in your house could see them viewed under suspicion. So it will be difficult to know which of those people genuinely held to the policies and beliefs of the Nazi Party and which of them joined the party out of a sense of fear and feeling that there was no alternative.

[Canopus]

There isn't a lot about what he did during the war years however, which is perhaps strange.

 

Very strange. This is something that needs an investigation.

 

But, he did open his first school for children with Autistic Psychopathy towards the end of the war, which I doubt he would have been doing if such suppression had occurred.

 

It can't be ruled out that the Nazis were behind the project. Although it is well known that the Nazis persecuted disabled people, perhaps they could have made a big exception for people with AS or high functioning autism because of their future potential to a Nazi government such as in areas of science and engineering.

[Lucas]

I know a little about this but not the great details. Not much is known about the fate of Asperger's child patients, but it's likely that they did escape the Nazi extermination programme for handicapped people. It's speculated that Asperger may have downplayed their disability and focused on their strong abilities in order to save them at the time. It can be said that this is when Neurodiversity and Autistic rights really started even if he didn't know it at the time. Fear for the children led him to consider their potential which he might not have done had Vienna not been under Nazi occupation.

 

After his practice was hit by Allied bomb forces in 1944 and a nurse was killed(it's not believed it was a deliberate target but the moral qualms about carpet bombing didn't exist back then), he joined the Vienna Resistence and fought against the Nazi occupation. He seems to have been a wholly good man to me.

 

Like all Nationalist Socialist movements, the Nazis forced everyone into joining the Nazi party, it blurs the lines between the outright evil, those who simply thought they were following orders and the decent but put upon people. So any investigation once the movement is defeated will find it difficult to trace the really guilty, which is why at Nuremburg they decided that the justification of simply following orders is no defense.

[butterfingersbimbo]

very interesting topic! its got me thinking!

[pearl]

If he was its the first I've heard about it. I cant imagine a Nazi championing disabled people as he did. He is one of my heroes.

[Noetic]

I've read the opposite in works by Lorna Wing etc. (as Lucas has already posted), namely that he often described his patients (and in particular their prospects for success at work etc.) in a more positive light than was really appropriate, since he wanted to prevent them from ending up in concentration camps.

Edited March 4, 2007 by Noetic

[KarenT]

I've read the opposite in works by Lorna Wing etc. (as Lucas has already posted), namely that he often described his patients (and in particular their prospects for success at work etc.) in a more positive light than was really appropriate, since he wanted to prevent them from ending up in concentration camps.

I'm sure I've read something to that effect quite recently, too. Might have been in Tony Attwood? That's the only 'new' autism book I've read lately.

 

Karen

x

[Noetic]

I'm sure I've read something to that effect quite recently, too. Might have been in Tony Attwood? That's the only 'new' autism book I've read lately.

That sounds quite likely, I first read it in a book called "Asperger Syndrome or High Functioning Autism?" which is a collection of articles published by Springer, but I do know I have read it again more recently.

[Corcaigh]

I agree with Lucas and the others who described Asperger as a dedicated man busy to work for his children. As far as I know he had to be in the party like every German of that time, but his personal political ideas were deeply different. Also, he nedeed founding and protection for his children's home, and being a political dissident against a totalitarian regime doesn't help in that case.

His biographers describe him as a gentle man, really fond of his children, his "adorable brats" as he lovingly used to call them

He dedicated his life to those kids and I am sure he managed to save them from concentration camp. He is a man to admire.

 

My humble view

 

Martina